Media Production Skills
- Course Code:
- 15PANH050
- Unit value:
- 0.5
- Year of study:
- Year 1 or Year 2
In a growing number of disciplines, students and researchers are encouraged/required to explore and present their subject matter in forms that are 'beyond text' with the aid of audiovisual material. This new half-unit graduate-level course in ‘Media Production Skills’ aims to provide postgraduate students with multimedia training and practice that can be used during fieldwork and for coursework presentation. Students will learn to harness a variety of media technologies including cameras, digital movie cameras and audio recording equipment, and they will be introduced to basic approaches to curating images, sounds and artefacts. These practical media skills are not taught in isolation, but reflected by discussion of the theoretical discourses surrounding them.
Qualification for entry
As this is a practice-based course, the number of students is limited to 15. We therefore ask students interested in taking this course to either visit the course convenor in the Media Lab (room G61, next to the library entrance), or e-mail soasmedia@soas.ac.uk with the following information:
student name, programme of study, previous media experience (camera, sound, editing etc.), and how they intend to combine this course with their studies.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
The aim of this course is to provide students with the following skills:
- Practical knowledge and understanding of a variety of media technologies relevant to fieldwork and data collection, and to the dissemination and presentation of research. Media technologies introduced on the course include digital cameras, digital video and sound recording equipment, and editing software (Adobe CS4).
- Ability to design, develop and execute a short research project.
- Ability to select an appropriate media form for exploring and representing a given research topic.
- Critical engagement with relevant literature on media technologies and production techniques.
- Awareness of the ethical issues underlying media use in research (e.g. the BBC Producers Guidelines or the Association of Social Anthropologists' (ASA) Ethical Guidelines), and an ability to apply the relevant professional guidelines to fieldwork and research presentation.
- Basic interviewing skills.
- Ability to keep a regular log of learning and practical development, and of techniques explored and results obtained.
- Creative experimentation, analytic reflection, self critique and problem solving.
- Ability to organize, analyze and present research data and ideas in a variety of non-textual formats.
- Appreciation of audience reception.
A number of the transferable skills listed above are also expected to enhance students' employment chances - both within and outside their discipline.
Workload
A one-hour lecture and a two-hour practical tutorial per week. Students will have access to the resources of the G61 media lab to practice and produce their coursework outside these contact hours, and they are also encouraged to enrol in additional (free) media training workshops offered in G61 that will allow them to further develop their skills in the chosen media form.
Scope and syllabus
course schedule and topics:
session 1: Introduction and Overview
session 2: Aesthetics of Representation I: Still and Moving Image
session 3: Aesthetics of Representation II: Sound and Artefact
session 4: Digital Camera Training
session 5: Photoshop and Image Editing
session 6: Video Camera Training
session 7: Sound Recording
session 8: Interviewing and Presentation
session 9: Digital Video and Sound Editing
session 10: Curating: Real and Virtual Exhibitions
weeks 1(&2) of term three: Student Presentations
The teaching of this course will be done by experienced practitioners in their respective fields, recruited both from within and outside SOAS. Mr. Jens Franz as Media Training and Production Coordinator at SOAS will convene the course, and provide technical support and advice to students throughout.
Method of assessment
Coursework for evaluation consists of the project proposal (5%), an oral presentation (5%), a final course essay based on a reflective study log and related literature (25%), and the final practical media project (65%). The final course essay and media project are due on the first day of term 3. There is no exam for this course.Required reading
brief overview of key texts (will be expanded and complemented by a structured reading and online resources list at the beginning of the course):
- Bauer, Martin W. & Gaskell, George (eds.) (2000): Qualitiative Researching with Text, Image and Sound: a practical handbook, Sage, London
- BBC (2009): Editorial Guidelines, [URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/edguide/ accessed on 27/04/2009]
- Brown, Blair (2008): Motion Picture and Video Lighting, Focal Press, Burlington, MA
- Collier, John Jr. & Collier, Malcolm ([1967], completely revised 1986): Visual Anthropology, Photography as a research method, University of New Mexico Press
- Devereaux, Leslie & Hillman, Roger (eds.) (1995): Fields of Vision. Essays in Film Studies, Visual Anthropology, and Photography, University of California Press, Berkeley
- Greene, Paul D. & Porcello, Thomas (eds.) (2005): Wired for Sound. Engineering and Technology in Sonic Cultures, Wesleyan UP, Middletown, CT
- Katz, Mark (2004): Capturing Sound: how technology has changed music, University of California Press, Berkeley
- Loizos, Peter (1993): Innovation in Ethnographic Film, Manchester UP, Manchester
- MacKay, Nancy (2007): Curating Oral Histories: from interview to archive, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA
- Peck, Akkana (2008): Beginning Gimp: from novice to professional (2nd ed.) Apress, Berkeley, CA
- Pink, Sarah (2007): Doing Visual Ethnography: images, media and representation in research (2nd ed.), Sage, London
- Rabiger, Michael (2009): Directing the Documentary (5th ed.), Focal Press, Burlington, MA
- Russell, Catherine (1999): Experimental Ethnography: the work of film in the age of video, Duke University Press, 1999.
- Sontag, Susan (1979): On Photography, Penguin, Harmondsworth
- Taylor, Lucien (ed.): Visualizing Theory, Routledge, New York
- Wells, Liz (ed) (2004): Photography: a critical introduction (3rd ed.), Routledge, London
